Cori Slingerland didn’t know how many cats were inside the Lander house when she promised its owner she would get help for her and her animals.
She only knew she had waited long enough.
“I can’t walk away,” Slingerland told Cowboy State Daily. “I’ve never been able to. I’ve been a magnet for stray animals my whole life.”
The cats Slingerland is currently working to rescue in Lander are not strays, but instead come from a hoarding situation. The owner of the house where Slingerland is working to rescue more than a dozen cats is a neighbor of one of her family members.
For years, Slingerland said she has seen the neighbor’s mental condition deteriorate.
“I know she loved those animals,” she said of the neighbor. “But she's not capable of caring for them the way they need to be cared for. It just got to the point where it is too much for her.”
‘Get These Animals Out of Here’
Slingerland said the woman’s daughter had been trying for years to get her mother help, but she lives in Gillette, and her hands were tied from that far away. Slingerland, who was often next door and could see how the animals were living there, said she believed that being a stranger to the family helped to get the ball rolling.
“I just kind of demanded help for her and for the animals,” she said. “My main concern was the animals. It's not my place to really be involved in the family.”
Slingerland rallied community resources and had a kind, honest conversation with the woman, helping her get into the residential mental-health treatment she needed. She said the sheriff’s office notified the woman’s daughter at that point, and she took direction from the daughter from there.
“I just basically threw myself at her and said, 'Let’s get this done,’” Slingerland said. “What do we need to do?”
The daughter is now at the helm of her mother’s care and the property cleanup.
Slingerland has kept her focus on the animals.
When she first stepped inside the house a couple of weeks ago, belongings were stacked high on every side, leaving a narrow walkway through the clutter and a single spot to sit on the couch. She said the smell was unbearable, and cats slipped in and out of sight between the piles, so skittish she never got the same count twice.
“My very first emotion is just sadness,” Slingerland said. “Then your instincts kick in. It’s just like fight or flight. I see the situation and I’ve got to get these animals out of here.”
Belongings were stacked high inside the Lander house where more than a dozen cats were living, leaving only a narrow path through the clutter. (Courtesy, Cori Slingerland) 
Belongings were stacked high inside the Lander house where more than a dozen cats were living, leaving only a narrow path through the clutter. (Courtesy, Cori Slingerland)
‘Hoping She’d Have A New Life’
For the past couple of weeks, Slingerland has worked alongside volunteers, local animal shelters and the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office to care for the roughly 19 cats living inside the house, feeding and watering them and changing litter boxes.
For the cats living outside, the group has set up kennels and put food inside, hoping to get the cats accustomed to being confined and start trapping next week.
Some of the animals have already been lost. Slingerland said she found a litter of kittens, two of which were removed from the house and are being cared for at Lander Pet Connection, an animal-rescue organization.
A third was so sick that it died, which Slingerland thought might have been related to breathing in ammonia from the amount of urine in the house.
Another cat, formerly named Lily, accidentally locked herself in a room and became trapped beneath the clutter.
“We renamed her Sapphire,” Slingerland said. “We tried to give her a new name because we were hoping she'd have a new life.”
Sapphire’s new life never came to be. Slingerland said she was pulled out of the house Wednesday and taken to a veterinarian, but by Thursday the vet determined her condition was too serious, and she had to be put down.
Fighting tears, Slingerland said she still can’t help but feel like she failed Sapphire. But she commended the dedication of Dr. Mike Then at Moose Ridge Veterinary Services, both in trying to treat Sapphire and caring for her end-of-life needs.
“They did everything they could, and helped financially with the care,” Slingerland said. “Dr. Then is actually burying her on his property today in a really beautiful spot, so we’re really thankful for that.”
‘Lander Came Together’
Then was not the only one who stepped up. Slingerland knew the cats needed to be spayed and neutered as soon as possible so no more kittens were born into the situation, and she reached out to Lannie Hamilton, the veterinarian for Lander Spay and Neuter.
Hamilton told Cowboy State Daily she was on vacation in Alaska but wanted to help however she could. But she hit a snag because the house was in the county and most of the organization’s resources were focused within Lander city limits.
Lander Spay and Neuter does offer free spaying and neutering for feral cats, Hamilton said, but only within its service area. She said the group’s resources were limited, and spending them on cases outside of town would keep them from making a difference inside it.
“We don't have billions,” Hamilton said. “In this case, they're out of our area. We can't do them for free.”
Given the situation, Hamilton said she could offer a discounted rate of $65 per spay for the hoarded cats, but with roughly 19 of them, she estimated the cost would still reach about $1,500. When she shared that figure with Slingerland, she didn’t hesitate and said she would raise it.
“She did it,” Hamilton said. “She showed the pictures, asked for money, and in five hours, Lander came together.”
Slingerland said asking for help did not come naturally to her, but she knew the situation was bigger than what she, the sheriff’s office and the neighbor’s daughter could handle alone. On Wednesday, she posted on Facebook asking the community for donations.
“These animals did not ask to be put in this situation, and they deserve a chance at a healthier, better life,” she wrote.
Donations poured in, along with bags of cat food and litter and offers from people to take shifts feeding the cats, help trap them or even adopt some. Slingerland said her phone buzzed all day with messages.
“Man, Lander is an awesome place,” she said. “I’m just really thankful to be here, and really proud of everybody that has stepped up in any capacity that they can. It’s truly been unbelievable.”
‘Who Else Is Going To Do It?’
As of Friday morning, Slingerland said she was still looking to raise about $500. Donations could be made through her personal Venmo (@Corinna-Slingerland) or directly to Lander Spay and Neuter, with a note designating the money for the cats in this case.
But the work does not end once all the cats are spayed and neutered.
“I had somebody comment on the post asking what happens after,” Slingerland said. “Well, good question. I don’t know. This is the first step, to get them cared for so they don’t reproduce.”
Slingerland said she knows shelters are already overrun, and older cats used to a more feral lifestyle are harder to get adopted than kittens. While she doesn’t know what comes next for them, she said her concern now is simply getting them off that property.
“My big push right now is to just get enough funds to get the animals taken care of before we get into winter,” Slingerland said. “We need to get them help.”
Slingerland is not affiliated with a shelter. She owns an insurance agency in Lander and has two rescue dogs in her family, but her involvement in this hoarding case does not come from professional expertise.
She simply saw animals in need and decided to jump in and help.
“It’s so easy to think that someone else will do it,” Slingerland said. “But with this one, I was like, ‘Who else is going to do it?’”
Slingerland said animal hoarding is not uncommon in Fremont County, and many people have grown accustomed to looking away. Beyond this one case, she said, there needs to be a bigger response so that these situations stop happening to begin with.
“We need more education on teaching people how to be responsible pet owners, and having the resources more available,” Slingerland said. “Just because they’re not human doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to live a beautiful life for the very short time that they’re here.”
For those who want to get involved when they see something like this, Slingerland said she hopes a lack of experience does not hold them back. She had never handled a situation like this herself, she said, but she has seen firsthand how quickly help comes once you ask for it.
“As humans, we have a hard time stepping into the unknown,” Slingerland said. “But it’s OK to just jump in head first and not know what to do at all, because people will pull together.”
Emma Jane Jackson can be reached at emma@cowboystatedaily.com.
